Additional Info

Nearby Theaters

Located in the Bay Ridge district of Brooklyn. The Electra Theater opened in around April 1913. Seating was provided in orchestra and balcony levels. In 1923, a Marr & Colton organ was installed. In 1926, the building was extended to the plans of architect Matthew Del Gaudio. Later converted to sound it remained a movie house for many years.

The Electra Theater closed on June 15, 1953, and was converted into a supermarket. The building was demolished in 1960 and a supermarket was built on the site.

Photos of this theater—both its silent-era incarnation and its later “talkies” complete with plastic and neon marquee—can be seen in the “Bay Ridge” picture book, part of the series on different neighborhoods. You can find it at Barnes & Nobel’s and Borders.

The Electra was the theatre of choice whenever you wanted something different. It was here that you saw foreign films such as
“La Ronde” and “Orpheus” among many others. Also classic British films such as “Henry V” and “Great Expectations”. The theatre was almost a working film course. An annual favorite was the double bill of “King Kong” and “Gunga Din”. The Electra also showed “Citizen Kane” yearly. To top it all, Saturdays would offer you the free comic books with their covers removed. I wish I could have met the owner and been old enough to appreciate him.

Yes, Bob— exactly. The Electra was known as “the first motion picture theater in Bay Ridge, built in 1913.” By the ‘50s, the management was so independent that it showed pictures on erratic bookings—recent product alternated with revivals and with foreign films (which few of the locals attended). I remember “Breaking Through the Sound Barrier”(David Lean’s '52 paean to modernity) and “Bonnie Prince Charlie” (with David Niven as the imposter) and “Man in the Dinghy” (everybody wondered who Liz Taylor’s new husband was, so they showed this Michael Wilding feature) and “La Ronde” (Ophuls! Ophuls! Ophuls!) (in my youth, I pronounced the title as “La ROD-ne”) showed there. It closed around '53, just before wide-screen came in.

New York Times March 4, 1954
“BUYER WILL ALTER BROOKLYN CORNER; Supermarket to Replace Old Electra Theatre at Third Avenue and 75th Street …

The former Electra Theatre and the adjoining taxpayer building at 7414-24 Third Avenue, corner of Seventy-fifth Street, in Brooklyn are under contract of sale by Hazel J. Heissenbuttel to the 5. S. Gould Son’s Company which plans to convert the property …."